The Distraction
by RubinAmigo
Summary: Connected to 'Cake and a Lizard' but can stand alone. Of imaginary spiders and soldiers. Jess/Becker
1. Jess' Distraction

**This story is connected to 'Cake and a Lizard' in which Connor needs Jess' help to sneak Rex out of the ARC. This story is about the distraction Jess provides for him.**

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After Connor had left, Jess started to think about what kind of distraction she should cause. She had to somehow focus everyone's attention on her. And it had to be something that wasn't obviously a lie. She was glad that she still had a few hours time to plot.

But her day was busy and she didn't have an opportunity to come up with a plan, until it was almost time. Cutting the power and blaming it on a computer failure seemed a bit drastic and might even be dangerous. And then Connor would probably get called back in to help fix the problem. No, anything computer related was out of the question. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

_A Spider_, she suddenly thought, her eyes flying open again. That was perfect, because a spider could hide well and she really hated them anyways. So when Connor waved at her, telling her he was getting ready to leave, she took a deep breath and screamed as loud and as shrill as she could.

This immediately granted her the attention of every person around her. She kept screaming and jumped up from her chair, backing away from the ADD, staring at the floor in front of it. When everybody came closer she looked up and started talking to the person closest to her. It happened to be Lester.

_This should be fun,_ she thought, grabbing his arm. "Did you see it? Is it still there?" she asked, trying to sound as scared as she could.

"Did I see what?" Lester asked, not sounding very pleased. He tried to free his arm from her grasp, but she refused to let go.

By now someone had notified the soldiers and the first men came into the room, trying to figure out what was going on. They looked confused when they couldn't see what the problem was.

"It was awful. And that thing was huge, too." Jess sobbed, finally answering Lester's question. She was confident that now everyone in the building was either here or very close by now. Connor should be safe.

More soldiers, including Becker, were arriving, ready to shoot some terrible creature. Jess had to fight not to laugh, when Becker came over.

"What is the problem?" he asked, scanning the room, trying to find whatever had caused this commotion.

"That's what I was trying to find out." Lester said, sounding annoyed, still having Jess clinging to his arm. "She hasn't made much sense yet."

"Alright. Hey, Jess, listen to me." Becker said, focusing on her now. "Tell me exactly what happened. Don't be afraid, we can handle it."

_I'm sure you can,_ Jess thought while biting the insides of her cheeks to keep from giggling.

"It was a spider." she finally admitted, certain that she had bought Connor enough time to get Rex and get out.

"A spider?"Becker asked, eyes wide in disbelieve. Jess nodded. "An enormous black spider. It crawled over my foot and scared me half to death." Now Becker had a hard time trying not to laugh. Maintaining a straight face with some difficulty, he told his men to go back to their stations.

"I will take care of that spider." he added for Jess' benefit, grinning widely. He exchanged his gun for an empty glass container and started walking around the room, eyes on the ground. Suddenly he crouched down, apparently catching something in the glass container and closing the lid.

"Alright everyone. The spider has been secured. You can all go back to work now." He straightened and walked over to Jess and Lester, prying her fingers off Lester's arm. Lester sighed in relief and went straight back to his office, shaking his head as he walked away.

Jess silently tried to sneak out of the room, while Becker was watching Lester, but he she didn't get far. He caught her with an arm around her waist and walked her back to her chair.

"I didn't know spiders bothered you this much." he said, still grinning at her when everybody else had gone back to work.

"Well, they do. They have too many legs and move way too fast. I never liked them." Jess defended herself.

"Even the imaginary kind?" he asked innocently, holding up the glass container in which he had trapped the 'spider' earlier. It was, of course, empty. He had seen right through her.

"Uhm." Jess swallowed. "You knew?" she asked, slightly nervous now. He had known, but he hadn't said anything. Instead he had played along.

"Lucky guess." He shrugged and grinned at her, moving closer to her making her feel cornered. _Like a predator stalking its prey,_ she thought and suppressed an involuntary shiver. He was way too close, it was distracting.

"Sooo, what do I have to…" she started and had to stop, when an image of her reaching up to kiss him, intruded her thoughts. She could feel herself blushing and it seemed to amuse him a great deal. _Yup, way too close,_ she thought, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself._ Get a grip, girl._

"What do I have to do to buy your silence?" she tried again.

He pretended to think about that for a moment. "How about you tell me what your little act was about over dinner?" he suggested.

Jess was surprised, she hadn't expected this. "Are…are you asking me out?"

"I guess I am." he told her.

"Then, okay, yes, I'll tell you over dinner." she agreed, her heart beating fast in excitement.

Later, during dinner, she told him why she had made up that spider. He wasn't exactly happy with her or Connor, but it was too late now and he promised not to talk to anyone about it. Apart from this, their date went very well and they both had a great time.

When he took her home Jess kept wondering, if was going to kiss her goodnight. It didn't seem that way when he turned around to leave, once she was at her door.

"What kind of imaginary creature does it take for you to kiss me?" she called after him, before she could stop herself.

He turned around again, came back and pulled her into a tight hug. "No more imaginary creatures, okay?" And with that he lowered his head and pressed his lips on hers. _Now I won't need them anymore,_ she happily thought as she parted her lips to deepen the kiss.

When he finally left a few kisses later she remembered something. "Uhm, Connor has to sneak Rex back in tomorrow morning." she said nervously.

He stopped, shaking his head in disbelieve. "Don't worry. I'll think of something." he finally told her.


	2. Becker's Distraction

**Okay, I know the story was supposed to be complete, because that was the way I had originaly planned it. But then I just had to continue it. It just felt unfinished without giving Becker a little chance to do something. So here it is and I hope you'll enjoy it. **

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He had promised Jess a distraction in the morning, because she had promised to help Connor and he didn't want her to get in trouble for it. This meant that Rex needed to be returned to the menagerie without anyone noticing. Even he wasn't supposed to know, Becker thought, frowning.

So what should he do? Imaginary spiders would not work for him.

He tried to find an answer while he drove back home, but he had a hard time concentrating on the subject. His mind kept wandering back to Jess and to the wonderful evening they had had together.

He had to think of something though, he really didn't want to disappoint her. But what could he do? When he fell asleep that night the only thing on his mind was Jess, nothing else and most certainly not Connor and his little problem.

He felt terrible when he went to work the next morning, because he still had no idea how to help Connor sneak Rex back inside the ARC. He'd never be able to look Jess in the eyes again, he thought depressed.

But when he entered the building nothing was like it was supposed to be. The entire security system wasn't working right; it just seemed to fail at random. No one was really paying attention to what was going on around them, except trying to get doors open, when suddenly someone had been locked in or locked out of a room. Alarms were sounding and then stopping again, before anyone had a chance to figure out what the alarm had actually been for.

It was difficult to tell what was really going on anywhere in the building and Becker realized that this was the perfect chance to sneak Rex back to the menagerie. No one would pay any attention to Connor, when he finally got to the ARC.

Becker didn't have to wait long. Soon he saw Connor peeking around a corner, looking for a clear path. Becker went over to him, grabbed his arm and pushed him back into the deserted corridor.

"Do you have Rex?" he asked urgently, while checking the area for someone who might find their behavior suspicious.

"How do you know?" Connor asked back, instead of answering the question.

"I just do. Do you have him?" Becker almost hissed, anxious to get this over with. Connor just nodded his head at a small box that was covered with a blanket.

Becker grabbed the box with one hand and Connor's arm with the other and pulled him down the corridor towards the menagerie.

"Come on, this security system failure is the perfect cover. Let's put him back."

"Did you do something to the system?" Connor asked sounding very surprised about this possibility.

"No, I don't know what happened and I don't really care. Maybe Phillip tried to update the system again or something. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed. But right now it is very useful." Becker answered and kept moving them along the corridors.

They had almost reached the menagerie, when a new alarm sounded overhead. This time it was the anomaly alert and it didn't stop, so it probably wasn't part of the system failure. It did transform the already confusing situation into a complete chaos though.

"You go ahead and see what you can do to get the security system back to normal. I'll return Rex and then I'll be right behind you." Becker decided and Connor quickly turned around and went back the way they had come.

Later that day, after the anomaly had been taken care of and the security system had started working properly again, which curiously had happened right after the anomaly alert had started, Becker finally had a chance to speak with Jess.

"So how did it go with Connor and Rex?" she asked, as they left the building together.

"Rex has been returned and no one noticed he wasn't there last night." Becker told her, relieved that everything had worked out.

"So your plan worked. Brilliant." she said, smiling at him. "What exactly did you do?"

"Uhm." he mumbled. "Well, with all the confusion earlier, my plan wasn't needed." He looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Really. And what would have done if the security system hadn't been all weird this morning?" she pressed.

"I…uhm…"

"You didn't have a plan at all, did you?" He had no idea what to say. She had called his bluff and now he had no idea what to say to her. He looked away, until he heard her laughing softly.

"I kind of thought that might be the case, so I hacked the security system. The anomaly alert wasn't my doing though, even if the timing couldn't have been more perfect."

"Jess, you are truly brilliant." He told her, as he pushed her with her back against his car and buried his hands in her hair. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer. When he bent down to kiss her he could still feel her smiling against his lips.


End file.
